Memories of Youth: Talk about an achievement from your youth that seemed to have gone unnoticed then. That effort is still sitting proudly in your memory and holds as a reminder of who you were and what you can accomplish.

How does this past effort affect your present?

Today in Church History: Isidore the Farmer, was a Spanish farmworker known for his piety toward the poor and animals. He is the Catholic patron saint of the farmer. His feast day is celebrated on May 15. The story of St. Isidore is a reminder of the dignity of work, and that ordinary life can lead to holiness… St. Isidore’s life demonstrates that: If you have your spiritual self in order, your earthly commitments will fall into order also.

How is the work you do dignifying? In what ways is the life you live ordinary?
Is your spiritual self always an asset in your earthly commitments?

Don’t go away mad… Members in your family are mental. Friends in your friendship are fiendish. Characters in your corporation are corrupt. How do you survive inextricable relationships? Fix? Suffer? Abandon?

If I don’t allow you to choose any of the aforementioned three options, what is the best way to handle relationships conceived in hell and neglected by heaven?

Who Killed Cock Robin?… is a poem thought to originate in a Celtic myth. In that myth, the red sun of summer, a robin, is killed by an arrow shot by the god of winter, a sparrow. The image of birds is predominant because of the Celtic belief that souls became birds after death. For the sake of argument, assume the soul physical attributes.

How do you envision your soul as manifested in the following presentations:
Before conception? During life? After death?

Are you an ethics eagle or a foul falcon? Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon (1931), created the character Sam Spade. This fictional private investigator solved mysteries with hardboiled, sometimes illegal and often unethical methods, giving up lovers and friends. Hammett himself professioned also as a PI. He neither broke the law nor gave up sources (even spending time in prison) – The antithesis of Spade.

When have your personal ethics stunted your professional ambitions?
As a result, did you recalibrate your ethics or reevaluate your profession or simply temporarily ruminate on your ethical enigma?

Better Living Through Beowulf… St. Mary’s English Professor Robin Bates’ BLTB blog entry, Which Fictional Death Still Haunts You?, inquires as to your most enduring fictional fatality, be it book, movie, or play.

Do you have one?
If so, why do you think that fictional tragedy evoked such real pathos in you?
Did the writer draw you in? Did you have a relatable personal encounter?

Not a Joke: Police interview three people at a crime scene, a priest, a lawyer and the victim. The priest describes the crime in detail. The lawyer describes the crime in facts. The victim tells the truth. The ability to articulate requires one to concisely give the facts. The ability to express emotions allows one to tell the truth.

What is it about emotions which make them superior to facts when the truth is the pursuit?

This Day in History: May 15, 1941, Joe DiMaggio begins his “unbreakable” 56-game hitting streak. In 1967, Simon and Garfunkel’s song “Mrs. Robinson” featured the lyrics: Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Simon concluded that DiMaggio was the antithesis of both the authority-defying “hippie generation” and the hypocritical “older generation” of the 60’s.

Who would you consider the respectful and genuine role model of our age? Can you lyricize it?